Good morning, Whitewater

In the city today, there’s a Landmarks Commission meeting scheduled for 5:00 p.m.

In our schools, at the high school there are homecoming events: Dress Day Decade Day, a canned food drive, dollar war, Lip Sync competition at 7 p.m., and sale of dance tickets.

On this day in Wisconsin history, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports an odd turn in our history:

1774 – Wisconsin Becomes Part of Quebec

On this date Britain passed the Quebec Act, making Wisconsin part of the province of Quebec. Enacted by George III, the act restored the French form of civil law to the region. The Thirteen Colonies considered the Quebec Act as one of the “Intolerable Acts,” as it nullified Western claims of the coast colonies by extending the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Ohio River on the south and to the Mississippi River on the west. [Source: Avalon Project at the Yale Law School]

Here’s today’s almanac:

Good morning, Whitewater

In the city today, there’s a Common Council meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

In our schools, there’s a 6:30 p.m. PTA meeting at Lakeview School, and at the high school there are homecoming events (Twisted Tuesday Mismatch Day, a canned food drive, dollar war, and sale of dance tickets).

On this day in Wisconsin history, from the Wisconsin Historical Society, a memorable anniversary:

1917 – Robert La Follette Supports Free Speech in Wartime

On this date Senator Robert La Follette gave what may have been the most famous speech of his Senate career when he responded to charges of treason with a three hour defense of free speech in wartime. La Follette had voted against a declaration of war as well as several initiatives seen as essential to the war effort by those that supported U.S. involvement in the first World War. His resistance was met with a petition to the Committee on Privileges and Elections that called for La Follette’s expulsion from the Senate. The charges were investigated, but La Follette was cleared of any wrong doing by the committee on January 16, 1919. [Source: United States Senate]

Here’s today’s almanac:

Good morning, Whitewater

In the city today, there’s a scheduled dedication of the Trippe Lake Shelter for 4 p.m.

On this day in Wisconsin history, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin held its first constitutional convention:

1846 – First State Constitutional Convention Meets

On this date Wisconsin’s first state Constitutional Convention met in Madison. The Convention sat until December 16,1846. The Convention was attended by 103 Democrats and 18 Whigs. The proposed constitution failed when voters refused to accept several controversial issues: an anti-banking article, a homestead exemption (which gave $1000 exemption to any debtor), providing women with property rights, and black suffrage. The following convention, the Second Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin in 1847-48, produced and passed a constitution that Wisconsin still very much follows today. [Source: The Convention of 1846 edited Milo M. Quaife]

In our schools today, there’s a music parents meeting in the high school choir room.

For Monday’s homecoming activities at the high school, there’s pajama day, a canned food drive, a dollar war, and powder puff football.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Good morning, Whitewater

On this date in 1996, President Clinton signed an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act, that required the federal government to place electronic documents online. Much has happened in these last thirteen years.

Among the most important changes, the legislation required the government to supply information in the requested digital format, if possible. Spreadsheets are easier to decipher than thousands of pages of documents, for example.

What’s more, the law also urged the government to publish online as much information as possible. FOIA, first enacted in 1966, now required the government to search its electronic databases to comport with information requests. An “agency shall make reasonable efforts to search for records in electronic form or format, except when such efforts would significantly interfere with the operation of the agency’s automated information system,” the legislation said.

The amendments, like the original act, allow anyone to request information, but have been especially helpful for journalists seeking information on behalf of the general public. News-gathering in the pre-digital days required burning shoe leather, working the phone and poring over reams of paper files. What little internet data was available was largely through Gopher and FTP. Web retrieval was somewhere between minimal and microscopic.

The 1996 amendments changed things a lot. “The 1996 amendments were very forward-thinking and very important,” said Lucy Daglish, executive director of The Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press.

But she cautioned that, notwithstanding the amendments, the sitting president sets the tone of how the Freedom of Information Act will be applied in practice.

That’s true locally, too. Wisconsin has its own Public Records Law, Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31 through 19.39. It’s not just the law, but compliance that matters.

In our schools, it’s Eagle and Spirit Day at Washington School, and the football team faces Evansville.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Good morning, Whitewater

There are no scheduled municipal, public meetings in the City of Whitewater for today.

The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that today is the anniversary of the first Wisconsin state fair:

1851 – First State Fair in Wisconsin

On this date thirteen counties were represented at the first state fair which was sponsored by the Wisconsin Agricultural Society in Janesville. 10,000 people attended the two-day event. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah McBride, p.118]

Here’s today’s almanac: